Jewish Star

edited by Craig Kellogg -- Interior Design, 11/1/2006 12:00:00 AM

Just in time for Hanukkah, two years of restoration at New York's Temple Emanu-El culminate in a December 15 rededication. The 1930 building by Charles Butler, Robert D. Kohn, and Clarence Stein is billed as the world's largest Jewish house of worship. It holds 2,500 congregants—members of the city's first Reform congregation. Beyer Blinder Belle: Architects and Planners, the firm that restored Grand Central Terminal, improved comfort in the 11,000-square-foot sanctuary by adding air-conditioning, improving the lighting, and refurbishing surfaces from acoustic tile to tesserae, marble, and a stained-glass window by Louis Comfort Tiffany.